Let's Talk Real Estate Investing with Sharon Vornholt

Passive income strategies will set you free. Today's show is one that you're not going to want to miss.

How would you feel if you had money coming into your bank account week after week, month after month that you knew you could count on whether or not you had a job? I'd say that would be a pretty great feeling.

My guest today is the Land Geek himself, Mark Podolsky. Mark has been on my podcast several times before, and I couldn't be more excited to have him back on the show today. Land investing is probably not the first real estate investing strategy that comes to mind when you think about passive income strategies. In fact, you may have never given it a single thought. But if you hate the thought of dealing with tenants, toilets, and termites, this might be one of the best passive income strategies of all for you.

Mark bought his first parcel of land back in 2001. In today's show, he is going to tell you exactly how you can have a business built on land investing no matter how much money you have to get started or where you live.

Show Notes – Passive Income Strategies: Why Land Investing is a Great Choice

• How this former stressed out banker got started with land investing while he still had a stressful, full-time corporate job
• How he quit his job in less than 2 years
• How COVID-19 has affected his business (I didn't see this coming)
• How you create monthly passive income with the land while avoiding Dodd Frank, the Safe Act and more
• Getting started with land investing when you have little money
• Getting offers accepted at 25 cents on the dollar
• How to build a business that runs without you
• Why you need a written process for everything you do in your business
• The blueprint for creating processes one by one in your business that gives you true freedom from the day to day operations (this works for any real estate investing strategy)
• Why it's important to have a clear vision of what you want your business to look like down the road before hiring VA's or contractors
• Training VA's: the exact amount of time you need to train a VA to master a task
• How you can generate cash FAST with land
• How to reach Mark to learn more about passive income strategies through land investing
• Free resources and courses mentioned in this show

Be sure to stop by the Louisville Gal's Real Estate Blog and pick up your freebies!

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My guest today is Chicago investor, Farrah Ali. Farrah is a single mom with a full-time job that requires a long daily commute to downtown Chicago. At the same time, she has been successful in building an impressive portfolio of 28 rentals, she is completing her second flip, and she has done 16 wholesales.

What's her secret? You're going to find out in this show.

Show Notes – Building a Rental Portfolio

Here is some of what we covered in this show:

• How she first learned about real estate investing
• Buying her first house with only a few hundred dollars in the bank
• Why having a strong "why" is so important to your success
• Choosing her first investing strategy out of necessity
• Her first deal
• Why having a mentor is crucial to your success
• How losing her job caused her to pivot and change investing strategies temporarily
• How Farrah scaled up the over the last 6 years
• Building a rental portfolio of 28 buy and hold properties, 1 flip and 15 wholesales in just 6 years
• The importance of aligning yourself with private money lenders if you want to scale your business
• Her plan to pay off all her rentals in about 7 years
• Co-founding We Win, a REIA group specifically for female investors and a non-profit that will help other investors
• Final advice for anyone wanting to model her success

Be sure to stop by the Louisville Gal's Real Estate Blog and pick up your freebies!

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I have been asked this question a lot lately. What happens if you stop your direct mail marketing now? Investors everywhere wonder if they should continue their direct mail marketing now that everything is shut down due to COVID-19 or stop for a while? That's a valid question. However, before you decide there are some things you need to consider.

Show Notes

Today I'm going to go over some of these things:

• Should you continue your direct mail marketing or stop or delay it for a while?
• Should you send the same mail direct mail piece you've been sending or something different?
• Should your message be different?
• What about sending a "value add" marketing piece instead of what you normally send?
• What happens if you do stop mailing now and start again later?
• Ways to stay top of mind with sellers so that they remember you when this is over

Final Thoughts…

Marketing is like a rock rolling down a hill. It takes a while to get momentum. Anytime you stop your marketing campaigns, it may take a while to ramp things up again. Are you willing to do that?

Be sure to stop by the Louisville Gal's Real Estate Blog and pick up your freebies!

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Digital marketing for real estate investors is a hot topic today. Learning how to use digital marketing to your advantage is critical for growing your business in 2020. It not only helps you grow your business, but it's also how you grow your brand and ultimately your bottom line.

Motivated sellers expect you to have an online presence today. It's no longer optional. Digital marketing helps you become the go-to source for information so that you stand out from your competition.

So, how do you do that?

You're going to learn the answer in today's show. My guest today is Bob Sparkins from Leadpages. Leadpages is a service I have used for a long time now, and I love it. Bob is a digital marketing expert.

He has been on a mission since 2006 to teach business owners around the world how to leverage digital marketing to impact more people with less effort. He is a former high school history teacher & academic team coach, a published author, and he lives in Minnesota with his wife and 2 kids.

What is Leadpages Used For?

Leadpages does many things, but I use it mostly for lead generation and for building landing pages.

You can use it to collect leads for your business, build websites, and deliver quality information known as "lead magnets" to motivated sellers that find you online. This is how you get people on your list so that you can continue marketing to them. If you've ever gotten one of my freebies on my website, you have been taken to a page I built inside Leadpages.

The thing I love most about this service is the beautiful templates that you can easily customize for your business. They are easy even for a non "techie" like me. Another added bonus is that Leadpages will also host your pages for you saving you that additional cost.

Please check out the resources at the bottom of the page where you will find a free 14 day trial to Leadpages. You also want to be sure to get their free course, "Website in a Weekend". I'll put those links below.

Show Notes

Bob shares some great information in this show. Here is just some of what we talked about:

• How Bob went from high school teacher to a digital marketing expert
• The way real estate investors can leverage digital marketing in 2020 to outperform their competition
• The importance of building an online presence
• Digital marketing and your real estate investing business
• Lead magnets: what they are and why you need to have them on your website
• Lead generation
• How someone that isn't tech-savvy and doesn't have an online presence at this time can get started
• Prioritizing what you need to do when it comes to building your online presence
• Bob's advice for anyone that feels lost in the world of digital marketing

Resources

Leadpages has a free course called, "Website in a Weekend" along with a 14 day free trial of Leadpages. Be sure to get your free copy of the course while you can. Just Click Here to get the course and your trial.

This is the perfect opportunity to get in there and check out Leadpages for yourself with absolutely zero risk.

If you love it as much as I do, you can get a 20% discount for your first month using the link below. (If you decide to pay annually, that discount is applied to your entire annual purchase).

***After the 14-day trial you will need to use this special link to get your 20% discount. Just Click Here. Just let your free trial expire and sign up with this special discount link.

How Much Does it Cost?

You can get started with Leadpages for as little as $19 a month. That's a great deal!

Books Mentioned in this Show

• Bob's Book – "Take Action Revise Later"
• Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Caldini
• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight and Norbert Leo Butz

Quick Question

Do you have freebies on your website to entice people to sign up? If you don't, now's the perfect time to get started.

Be sure to stop by the Louisville Gal's Real Estate Blog and pick up your freebies!

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Did you know that as many as 80% of your deals will come from consistent follow-up? That's a pretty staggering statistic, but I can tell you that consistently follow up beats your competition every time. When I think back to when I was just getting started and I didn't do this, it makes me wonder just how many deals I missed out on. If they said no to my offer, I thought that meant "never". I have since learned that that actually might mean "not now".

Today I want to talk about the importance of following up with people that either didn't respond or said no to your offer previously. You may have noticed that I didn't say "last time". You should be following up multiple times with these sellers. If you are doing consistent marketing especially for off-market deals, you should have a lot of these leads. Any time you can get face to face with a seller, you have another opportunity to get a "yes". After all, real estate investing is a numbers game.

Quick Question…

Do you follow-up after you get a no? If the answer is yes, do you have a procedure for doing the consistent follow-up? Let me know.

Be sure to stop by the Louisville Gal's Real Estate Blog and pick up your freebies!

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I wanted to address some of the questions and concerns I've been getting recently about the effect the Coronavirus is going to have on real estate investors and their businesses. I've talked with a lot of investors recently and they are worried. Today, I have some survival tips for real estate investors during this crisis.

Real Estate is Always Changing

As I look back over the more than 2 decades I have been in this business, real estate has always been cyclical. Real estate is bound to change if you stay in this business long enough. You may need to adjust the way you do business or the strategies you are currently using, but you can make money in real estate in any market. You just may have to do it differently.

Show Notes:

• How world events impact real estate investors – buyers and sellers
• The devastating effects a government ban may have on landlords
• Which sellers will be the most motivated to sell at a discount?
• The "thinning of the herd"
• Why rehabbers have good reasons to be worried
• Probates: a golden opportunity at this moment in time
• Should you continue direct mail marketing?
• Do you need to make any changes in the way you are currently marketing to sellers?
• Which investors will be positioned to find the greatest opportunity at this time
• Why follow up may very well be the "magic button" now
• Which businesses have the best chance of survival
• What you can do now to make your business stronger going forward
• Why you need to revise your marketing plan now

Quick Start Marketing Plan

Don't forget to head over to the Louisville Gals Real Estate Blog and get your free "Quick Start Marketing Plan Template".

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I love to have people on the show that have pivoted from one totally unrelated career to real estate investing. My guest today is Colorado investor, Jill Speth. In today's show, we are going to dive into how this former nurse was able to build a successful real estate investing business, relocate to another city, then start again and build another successful business.

Jill started investing in Colorado Springs in 2009 where she focused on wholesaling and rehabs. She also managed to build a small portfolio of rental properties.

In 2012, she moved to Littleton Colorado with her family. Jill got her associate broker license in 2016 and focused on selling her rental portfolio that she had built in Colorado Springs. Jill has been a full-time investor since 2018, and she continues to flip houses in the southwest Denver Metro area.

Show Notes

• Jill's journey from nursing to real estate investing
• How mentors helped her get results faster
• Building a business in one city, then starting again in another city
• Jill's main strategies for finding houses
• How her marketing has changed from the early days or investing until now
• How Jill funds her deals
• Learning how to estimate repairs
• Tips for finding contractors
• Selling her flips
• Why she's very purposeful about building a lifestyle business
• Jill's advice for anyone just getting started

Be sure to stop by the Louisville Gal's Real Estate Blog and pick up your freebies!

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I have waited so long to be able to say this, but now I can say without a doubt that the new face of real estate investing is female. I've been in this business since 1998, and I could have never predicted that it would take more than two decades for women to find equality and success equal to their male counterparts in this business.

Show Notes

Here are just a few things we covered in this show.

• Why did it take so long for women to catch up?
• The "good old boys club"
• Why women are so good at this business
• How have women made such a big impact in this previously male-dominated field?
• Why real estate is the perfect fit for women of all ages
• Key advantages for women in this business
• When should you start?
• Traits needed for success; you already have them!
• Why real estate investing is perfect for moms
• How your business will grow as you mature

Be sure to stop by the Louisville Gal's Real Estate Blog and pick up your freebies!

Today I have a workshop for you on writing a marketing plan for your real estate investing business. I have talked about this a lot, and I have a "Quick Start Marketing Plan Template" free here on the blog. However, I still get a lot of questions from folks asking me if I would go over the actual process of writing a marketing plan using the template as a guide so that's what today is about.

Download Your Template Below

Before you dive in, download your Quick Start Marketing Plan Template below so that we can work through this together. At the end of this training, you can have a fully fleshed out marketing plan for your real estate investing business. Writing a marketing plan makes keeping your marketing on track so much easier. However, the real bonus you get from doing this is the difference you will see in your bottom line.

Show Notes

If you're ready to finally have a written marketing plan, this is the show for you.

In this show we'll cover:

• Choosing your strategies
• How to define the steps for each strategy
• How to create (and spend) your marketing budget
• An easy plan to implement your marketing plan
• Outsourcing
• Creating your 1 year, 3 year, 5 year (and beyond) plans
• Streamlining your plan using the 12-week year
• Creating a plan of action from today's training

Resources Mentioned in this Show

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• Bonjoro

Books Mentioned in this Show

1. The 12 Week Year – Brian Moran
2. The One Thing – Gary Keller
3. The Miracle Morning – Hal Elrod
4. The Pumpkin Plan. Profit First & Clockwork by Michael Michalowicz
5. The Compound Factor by Darren Hardy
6. Fascinate by Sally Hogshead
7. Scale or Fail by Allison Maslan
8. Start Ugly by Chris Krimitsos

Get Your Quick Start Marketing Plan Template

Just head over to the Louisville Gals Real Estate Blog and pick up your free Marketing Plan Template.

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My guest today is California investor, Gary Boomershine. We're going to dive into using direct mail and targeted follow up to generate consistent motivated seller leads. Gary's company has sent out over 42 million direct mail pieces so he might know a thing or two about this topic. His company has also made 2.5 million live seller calls, and you'll learn how you can do this even if you're a small company.

One thing that is unique about Gary's company is that over the years they have collected data and statistics to track everything in their business.

Show Notes

We covered a lot of ground in this show. Here is just some of what we covered:

• Growing up in a real estate family; paying for college painting rental properties, door knocking, holding open houses, cold calling and more
• How getting a computer engineering degree ultimately set him on this successful path
• Taking his computer engineering background to build technology to scale his own business
• Why direct mail is only the first piece of the puzzle; turning those calls into an appointment
• Using direct mail and targeted follow up; the magic sauce
• Why Gary says you shouldn't be the one making those follow up calls
• Using VA's and scripts
• Taking follow up to another level using RVM (ringless voice mail) and text messaging, and what you need to know about these services
• What's working in 2020
• Response rates for direct mail today
• How many people you need to talk to in order to close a deal
• The importance of knowing your cost per deal
• The power of using automated software for follow up
• Baby steps toward scaling your business
• The levels of service RealEstateInvestor.com provides

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